Come visit with me as I stitch and craft my way from one Christmas to the next - I like to have Christmas projects close by me all year. I have a particular fondness for Santas and Angels. If you have the time, leave a comment so I know you've visited.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for February

It's been a busy stitching month for me - and all of my stitching in the past month qualifies for the GG report. I stitched another 9 little Christmas trees to decorate and frame in the tiny gold coloured frames. I haven't got the beads and buttons out yet, so this is what the naked trees look like - or at least this batch, as every batch is likely to be different! That last little tree has a white pot. I guess I forgot to backstitch. Once they are finished, they will go into my 'take home gift basket' for Christmas visitors (and often the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and teachers of Christmas visitors).

I also stitched and decorated this very slightly larger tree, which is about 4cm (1.6") tall and a bit over 2 cm (0.8")wide. I have to go looking for a frame for this one.

There has been no further progress on the Dimensions Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit Height Chart (gifted to my niece by a friend, and stitched by me at my niece's request). I am still waiting for the extra birth and height details my niece wants added to it. The poor dear is midway through renovations on the house they moved into just before Christmas, and she has better things to thnk of than the details I want. I have now back-stitched a border around the stitched design, and on the backing fabric, and I have felt and cardboard ready to stiffen it, so I am all ready to finish it off. I am hopeful that the finishing method I have in mind will allow easy removal of the internal stiffening so extra details can be stitched, and the chart can be laundered. I have decided to go ahead and make it up anyway (just as soon as I finish my current page of Christmas Dreams and get those little trees decorated and framed).

Which brings me to my current WIP, HAED Christmas Dreams (chart, fabric and most of the floss bought with birthday money/vouchers). Here is where I started at four weeks ago (13 pages stitched):

And here is Christmas Dreams now, with 17 pages stitched and just the face/head to go on the 18th page (which will complete the 3rd of 11 rows of pages). I am stitching it sideways, but I turned it around so you can see my lovely Santa properly. Four pages finished in the past 4 weeks - a record for me! When the page I am stitching on is finished, the picture will be 30% complete. Yay!

So, that's the end of my story for the February GG report. Thank you for visiting.

Size 625 stitches wide x 416 stitches high (66 A4 chart pages, large format). Commenced 1/1/2016. I am stitching on 22 count hardanger, with 2 strands of floss over 1, tent stitch, and I am stitching it sideways, as it was too wide for my frame. My aim is to have it framed and on my wall for Christmas 2020. I have now finished 19 of the 66 pages, and have now stitched 80,546 stitches of the total 260,000 - so it's about 31% completed.

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My Favourite Stitched Santa

This is the largest (and longest) of my many stitching projects over the past 30 years or so. It is HAED JG92105, Jolly Old Fellow (artwork by Dona Gelsinger, charted by Michele Sayetta), which I commenced January 2009, and finished on June 25, 2012. JOF is stitched over 1 on 22 count white hardanger. The charted size is 400 x 509 stitches, but I added 2 stitches to the width, making it 402 wide.